Don't know why ipod is such a big deal. May be I cannot approve it's first rank owing to the fact that i lack musical ears. Anyways, as of 2005, this is the list of top 40 masters of technology & innovation. Some of the short desrciptions are a study in itself. A study of making short & sweet remarks , yet giving a clear picture of the product.
Complete list here
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/wired40.html
I was amazed to see Infosys at # 11, and above e-bay. i think that is a little unfair to ebay.
Google off course remains my favourite on the top of the list.
I belong to the Googled-generation :)
1. APPLE COMPUTER
iPowerhouse
Last year: 3
As the world moves toward open standards, the last true believer in closed systems refuses to capitulate. Funny thing: No one is asking Apple to change. That's because the computermaker turned consumer electronics powerhouse has made a virtue of proprietary control, consistently delivering quality and flair. The company sold 8.2 million iPods in 2004, and iTunes accounted for 70 percent of legal music downloads, leading to exceptional revenue and profit in Q4. With such a foothold in music, can an assault on TV be far behind?
Challenge: Woo enterprise users who still dismiss the Valley darling. As a Dell spokesperson scoffs, "Is it innovation if no one buys it?"
Opportunity: Build on the iPod/iTunes strategy. How about an Apple video camera that adds value to Final Cut Pro?
Story Tools
Rants + raves
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Start
The new multiple personality disorder
Hit that comet! NASA takes its best shot
Manhattan, a pre-metropolis panorama
E. M. Urquhart: The next J. K. Rowling?
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Play
The Hitchhiker's Guide: book vs. film
Hacking rock with System of a Down
Fetish: Technolust
Test: Consumer reviews
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View
Garage-based DNA labs are here!
Hot Seat: NIH honcho John McGowan
Lessig: How Michael Powell became an unlikely Internet hero
Sterling: Why radical disruption is good for American health care
More »
2. GOOGLE
The Answer
Last year: 1
The Internet's librarian turns out to be its biggest power broker. Fueled by $3.2 billion in 2004 revenue, Google fulfills 200 million searches of 8 billion Web pages a day, determining which sites are seen and which remain buried. And new initiatives keep coming: local search, maps, movie showtimes, searchable television content. A recent post on Slashdot.org puts it neatly: "In a few years, you'll be driving your Google to the Google to buy some Google for your Google."
Challenge: Retain valuable employees. Now that the fortunes have been made, workers may have little incentive to stay.
Opportunity: Wrest screen real estate from Microsoft. Desktop search is just the thing to capture the first parcel.
3. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
Gadget Master
Last year: 6
If China is the number one Asian threat to the US consumer electronics industry, number two is the republic of Samsung. The South Korean company racked up profits of $10.8 billion in 2004, more than Sony, Matsushita, Motorola, and Nokia combined. It leads in flash memory and computer displays and ranks third in cell phones. With 15 R&D centers around the globe and the perfect test market in its backyard, Samsung gives even the cut-rate Chinese reason to tremble.
Challenge: Currency exchange rates. The falling dollar is bound to crimp the company's earnings.
Opportunity: Be the new Sony. The tech and products are there; the image still needs work. Time for an all-out branding offensive. (For more on Samsung, see page 126.)
4. AMAZON.COM
Mall World
Last year: 2
Jeff Bezos is finding that it pays to gamble. Not long ago he bet that customers would come to Amazon for more than books; last Thanksgiving weekend, his company sold more electronics items than books for the first time. Now Amazon's CEO is wagering beyond ecommerce. In September, Bezos rolled out a search engine, A9.com, that offers recommendations: "If you liked that site, you'll love this one." That's more than a shopping service; it's an assault on Google and Microsoft.
Challenge: Show us the money. Bezos has proven his bookshop can grow, but profits have been paltry.
Opportunity: Partner with Netflix - or crush it. Amazon could very well do either: It owns the Internet Movie Database, and it's piloting DVD rentals in the UK.
5. YAHOO!
Next Stop: Hollywood
Last year: 7
Fastest revenue growth: 119%
Ten years after two Stanford engineering students undertook a quixotic effort to categorize every page on the Web, Yahoo! is set to storm Hollywood. It has revenue: $3.6 billion in 2004. It has eyeballs: 345 million pairs every month. It has broadband partnerships with reality TV kingpin Mark Burnett and Entertainment Tonight. CEO Terry Semel has hired ABC exec Lloyd Braun, the guy who green-lighted Desperate Housewives, to cook up compelling shows. Can he direct Yahoo! to Wisteria Lane?
Challenge: Keep at least one eyeball on Google. Yahoo! is still an ad-driven Web portal at heart.
Opportunity: Create content. Yahoo!'s numbers make TV's sweeps-week audience look tiny.
6. ELECTRONIC ARTS
Game MVP
Last year: 8
The videogame industry has grown up. The first generation of gamers is over 30 and can afford every new release. At the same time, developers wield the upper hand in negotiations with movie studios, record companies, and sports leagues. The uppermost hand of all: Electronic Arts, with 27 platinum titles in 2004. Despite Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, sports are still EA's strength. In December, the company announced an exclusive five-year deal with the NFL, sending competitors to ride the pine.
Challenge: Show Hollywood who's boss. EA makes great games out of movies. When do we get a great movie made out of a game?
Opportunity: Steal Grand Theft Auto's thunder. The deal to turn The Godfather into a game gives EA entrée into the "mature" genre.
7. GENENTECH
Forever Young
Last year: 4
It's as if the Knack were still on the charts. Genentech, founded in 1976, has dodged biotech's one-hit-wonder syndrome. It now has 13 discoveries on the market, thanks to the FDA's November approval of the lung cancer treatment Tarceva. Avastin, for colon cancer, notched $555 million in sales last year, but could reach several billion annually if it's approved for ovarian and lung cancers as well.
Challenge: Intellectual property loopholes. India's Zenotech Labs has announced a knockoff of Genentech's lymphoma-fighting Rituxan for one-third the price.
Opportunity: Make traditional chemo obsolete. Avastin is a start.
8. TOYOTA
Hot Wheels
Last year: 18
Highest Capital Spending: $15 billion
What car won Consumer Reports' most recent customer satisfaction survey? The Prius. Toyota's hybrid model is taking over the road, boosting fuel efficiency to 60 mpg and taunting US automakers to catch up. The only roadblock is cost, but there's good reason to believe Toyota can get past it. Anticipating sales of 100,000 hybrid vehicles in 2005, the company is doubling production, and third parties like Toshiba and Panasonic are ramping up assembly lines to supply parts. Economies of scale are dead ahead.
Challenge: Style. Nobody buys a Prius because they love the design.
Opportunity: Sell to companies with huge, gas-guzzling fleets. FedEx and UPS could save a bundle by going hybrid.
9. INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
Outsourcerer
Last year: 11
The caricature of the Indian outsourcing industry as a voracious monster bent on devouring US jobs isn't just oversimplified, it's obsolete. Case in point: Infosys. The Indian coding shop, which garnered $1.1 billion in sales last year, is hiring 500 employees for Infosys Consulting, a $20 million foray into high-end IT advice based in - guess again - Fremont, California. Dirt-cheap outsourcing plus strategic guidance makes for a powerful combination - and one that moves jobs back to the US.
Challenge: Beware the rest of Asia. In the low-cost sweepstakes, China is to India as India is to Western economies.
Opportunity: Do to bloated US consultancies what Dell did to the PC industry.
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